What Americans Must Know About President Obama and the U.S. Constitution

The president cannot write—or rewrite—the laws. The Constitution makes Congress the legislature, and the president cannot simply ignore its decisions.

The entire system of separation of powers—which is the heart of the Constitution’s “checks and balances” designed to limit governmental power and thereby protect individual liberty—depends upon each branch of the federal government fulfilling its assigned role and respecting that of the others. Unfortunately, Mr. Obama has now made clear that he won’t respect these basic constitutional limits on his power.

On Iran v. Israel

“Any first use of nuclear weapons is an extremely momentous decision and can be justified only in the most dire of circumstances,” (Source). David Rivkin visited Israel in 2008 with The Israel Program on Constitutional Government funded by Keren Keshet (The Rainbow Foundation). This trip led to an article in The Washington Post: The Myth of Occupied Gaza.

On Palestinian Statehood

In order for a given entity to be granted statehood in the UN, it must meet specific criteria: it needs to have a territory, a population, a government that exercises effective sovereignty, and be able to enter into agreements with other nations. According to these standards, Palestine does not meet the basic objective criteria to become a state. Palestine does not control Gaza or even the West Bank. Since Israel controls most of the land that Palestine claims, Israel is the only entity that can “midwife” Palestine into a state. Furthermore, the United Nations is not in the business of recognizing the state, but is only able to take an existing state and make it a member of the UN. While some argue that the Vatican is an exception to this rule, Rivkin fires back that the Vatican, as the oldest existing state in history was able to merely ushered into the UN with non-member status.

On “The Palestinian Problem”

Has anything changed since I wrote this in 2008? “Today, no state claims sovereign authority [over Gaza], though it is expected that Gaza will become part of a future Palestinian state. For its part, Hamas acknowledges no higher authority and functions as a de facto government in Gaza. It is a classic example of a terrorist-controlled badland.”

President Obama’s Agenda vs. the Law

Mr. Obama granted effective amnesty to undocumented aliens under age 30 who had come to the U.S. before age 16. This entire group will no longer be subject to deportation proceedings and may also qualify for renewable work permits. Thus the president implemented portions of legislation that he could not get through Congress on his own signature and acted in ways blatantly at odds with the existing immigration laws, which provide for no such exemptions from deportation.